1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to identification and payment cards and methods of secure cardholder identity confirmation. More specifically, the present invention discloses a tamper-proof secure card with stored biometric data that cannot be altered or duplicated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Credit cards are widely used throughout the world to make purchasing products and service convenient. They allow a user to buy items without needing to carry currency.
However, credit card theft and fraud is rapidly becoming a major problem for credit card holders and the issuing financial institutions. If a credit card is stolen, the thief only needs to imitate the credit card holder's signature. This is fairly easy since the signature is prominently displayed on the rear side of the credit card. As a result thieves can easily use the card without the credit card holder's knowledge causing the holder to pay for items they didn't authorize. In some cases the financial institution that issued the card will take responsibility for the payment. However, both of these cases result in losses for either the card holder or the financial institution.
Additionally, thieves can easily duplicate credit cards by reading the cardholder's information that is stored in a magnetic strip on the back of the card and then writing the information onto a blank new card. These duplicate cards can then be used by the thieves or sold to others.
Any purchases made using the stolen cards are billed to the cardholder's account until the cardholder notifies the financial institution that issued the card that the card was lost or stolen.
In cases of duplicate cards, the cardholder won't realize the situation until their bill arrives up to one month later. As a result, the cardholder's account balance can be up to the account's maximum amount.
In both instances either the cardholder or the financial institution that issued the card is responsible for paying for the purchases. This can be devastating for the cardholder or the financial institution.
Refer to FIG. 1A, which is a drawing illustrating a front view of a conventional credit card of the prior art.
As shown in FIG. 1A, the front side of the conventional credit card 100 includes a logo 110 of the financial institution that issued the credit card 100. The card holder's name 120 and account number 130 are embossed in the lower part of the credit card 100.
Refer to FIG. 1B, which is a drawing illustrating a back view of a conventional credit card of the prior art.
The rear side of the conventional credit card 100 includes a magnetic strip 140 that contains account information that the financial institution stored in the magnetic strip 140 before giving the credit card 100 to the customer. A vulnerability of the conventional credit card 100 is that it is possible for thieves to read or copy the data stored in the magnetic strip 140.
Also on the rear side of the conventional credit card 100 is a signature strip 150 where the card holder signs their signature 160. As mentioned above, the conventional credit card 100 provides a thief with an example of the credit card holder's signature 160. This allows the thief to practice imitating the signature until good enough to fool a cashier into accepting the card.
Refer to FIG. 1C, which is a drawing illustrating a conventional network for confirming a credit card of the prior art and to FIG. 1D, which is a flowchart illustrating a conventional method for using a credit card of the prior art.
The conventional method 180 and conventional system 170 for using a credit card include the customer giving the credit card to a cashier and the cashier swipes the credit card 181 through a card swipe machine 171. The card swipe machine 171 reads the account data stored in the magnetic strip on the credit card. The account data is then sent to a central server 173 having an account database 182 over a telephone line 172. The central server 173 then confirms the account has enough funds to cover the purchase 183 and a confirmation notice is sent to the card swipe machine 171,184.
An invoice is printed 185 and the customer signs the invoice 186. The cashier then looks at the signature on the back of the credit card and compares it to the customer's signature 187. If the cashier feels that the signatures match, a copy of the invoice and a receipt are given to the customer 188. Since the cashier is using personal judgment to verify the signature mistakes are common.
Another disadvantage of the convention card and system is that data is stored on a central server. This opens the door to hackers to break into the server and steal the information. However, in some cases the present invention stores data or information such as account number, customer number, etc. on a central server. However, personal data such as biometric data etc. is not stored on the server.
Therefore, there is need for an improved means of preventing duplication or alteration of a secure card and confirming the identity and authority of an individual and prevents identity theft or misuse.